RedRamage

I'm not saying it's nothing... cause obviously it's something... but we're also talking about practice here. Any thing that's more than a little "ouch" moment they're going to be extra careful with. It's not like Sewell needs reps to get up to speed with the offense or learn the play book or whatever... he's a Pro-Bowl caliber going on his third season with the same staff in place. Slight discomfort? Get him off the field and check it out to be safe. Again, I'm not saying it's nothing and don't worry. But I am saying: Don't panic just yet... let's hear what the staff says after they get a chance to look at it.

Well, me for one. Honestly I'm not sure why you assume that most people have done this? It's frankly disturbing that you'd assume this. I'm a bit put out that you'd state something like this because when I did it, it was a domestic flight and therefore totally different.

Yeah... I think you did.

Thanks, this is really cool. I was looking at the injury listings on pro-football-reference, which are nice charts, but it's great that someone is trying to put a number on it and taking into account the importance to the player/position. The Lions rank is about what I expected... middle of the pack. Nothing substantial that makes you think the Lions pissed in God's cereal, but also nothing so good that makes you think Holmes made a deal with the devil. I will say that I think they are under-estimating the importance of the QB, and they seem to admit that as well: "...while Cincinnati showed the limitations of the AGL formula: they ranked third in lowest AGL but of course their most substantial injury was to starting quarterback Joe Burrow." I think Minnesota is another example of that. They were starting to build some steam last year until Cousins got hurt, then it all fell apart. But Minny is still ranked in the middle of the pack in AGL.

While technically correct, I disagree on dodging it. We did not have many that we lost of the whole season, but we had some key players who missed substantial time: Cabinda - 12 CJGJ - 14 Houston - 14 Jacobs - 5 McNeil - 4 Mosely - 16(.9) Paschal - 5 Vatai - 11 And these are just the bigger names. I'm not include Sudfeld or Knight or Zylstra or Nelson (all double digit games missed). And again I'll point out... where were we the weakest last year? Secondary... where the projected starting CB was out for pretty much the entire season and the projected starting safety missing 82% of the season. We started Vildor in the NFC Championship game for goodness sake! This also doesn't include that we lost Marvin Jones because he stepped away from the missing 11 games or that Jamo was suspended for the first handful of games. I'm not trying to say that the Lions had it super bad injury-wise. I know that there were other teams that had it worse... MIN, for example. But I don't think the Lions got super luck in the injury front either.

I don't think we dodged the injury thing. Perhaps other teams got hit worse, but the Lions had quite a few injury issues. OL, for instance lost 9 games among the 5 starters (Decker 2, Jackson 5, Ragnow 2) and the defense really had some key injuries: CJGJ 15 and Mosely 16.9. There's a smattering of other players who missed a few games here and there included ARSB (1), Monty (3), Anzalone (1), etc, but especially that secondary hit was huge. Our secondary was the weakest unit last year easily and it was missing two big name free agents who were supposed to help it for nearly the entire season.

I'm probably one of the bigger Bates slappies here (just look at the UFL thread), but a 64-yarder in practice doesn't mean much. Don't get me wrong... I definitely LIKE that he has a big leg, but kicking in practice vs. in game where the opposing team is barreling in on you and there's pressure to make it... that's what counts a lot more. Bates mostly seemed to be able to handle this in the UFL well, but there's always the question of whether the added mental pressure of doing in in the NFL will be too much. I mean he's on a (nearly) $2M contract over two years. This is life altering money and if he's successful he can expect even more.

I want him to go to which ever team will do better with him. I don't really fear the Browns or the Pats right now, so I'd prefer that the 49ers get a lower pick (as a result of the team he goes to finishing with a better record) in whatever draft picks they're getting back. I will say that I'm surprised that there are two trade deals worked out (from the 49ers end). This actually gives Aiyuk some leverage with the teams. I don't know if this is common and I've just never heard of it before or if the 49ers are trying to be nice to Aiyuk or what.

Two things: 1. This is why we moved on from Jackson. He was beginning to be an injury problem. Missed 4 games two years ago, missed 5 games last year. He's good when healthy, but being healthy all year was becoming hard for him to do and it's not smart to give a LOT of money to a guy who isn't able to play regularly... not when he's "just" good. 2. Even if they are all healthy for week 1, OL is about working together and getting comfortable with how your neighbors play. If they only have limited time to work together this will work in favor of the Lions. Having said that, if there are "day-to-day" things than the group may still be able to drill together, just not do an actually contact stuff.

I'm certainly not being a rules expert, but doesn't he take up a spot on the 53 man roster then?

Grapes? Is that you??

Even if we assume a resurgence of Levi (which is a HUGE if right now), it's still to early to cement it, but I totally agree that its looking like a monster return on the draft. Sewell: Bona fide star, pro-bowl caliber starter Onwuzurike: Quality rotation/possible starter McNeill: High Quality Starter/border line Star Player Melifonwu: Quality rotation/possible starter (depends on how he progresses at safety) St. Brown: Bona fide star, pro-bowl caliber starter Barnes: Decent Rotation guy Jefferson: Depth piece We got 3 starters... and that's 3 guys who would be starters on nearly any team in the league. We got 3 players who are borderline starters. 3 guys who would probably be starters on many teams in the league, but aren't quite good enough to be considered starters with the Lions. We got 2 bona fide stars with at least 1 knocking on that door, and maybe more? Yeah, this is the sort of draft that could rank up there with the best, that's for sure.

See, the thing is just about any other coach I can think of... I hear that from them and I just assume it's coach-speak... trying to talk up a guy. "Best shape of his life..." sorta stuff. But with Campbell? I think he actually means it. Now, obviously it has to translate from training camp to actual games AND there's the little matter of staying healthy. But make IF he put together and IF he can stay healthy... that's a HUGE bonus for the defense.

With Cominsky out and Judon unhappy with his contract in Boston, do the Lions call up the Pats about what it would take to get Judon? Being a Grand Valley alum I'd love to be able to root for him.

I think that's definitely true, but... I think that would have been true before the trades, if maybe not quite as much. 3 of our 6 players penciled is an Major league starters are injured with now in Mize, Olson, and Manning. Another 1 has just totally bombed out and been demoted. That means we had 2 good starting pitchers. Starting pitching on 7/30 was in bad shape. For 2025, are we really in any worse shape that we were two days ago? Sure, triple A pitching isn't as deep as it was because we've had to call up Montero and will have to call up more now. But these are guys we hoped would be pushing for starting jobs next year and/or will be pushed back to triple-A if the three guys listed above come back healthy. The ground we've lost for the year isn't because of the trades, it's because of the injuries and underperformance of key players.

Maybe, but remember this is just a rental on a guy with some back issues so I'm not expecting the sun moon and stars... just the moon, and maybe one or two smaller stars.

Even after giving every indication that he would NOT use his cellphone signal blocker, at the last minute Flaherty did use it to block Harris from being able to make and receive phone calls. It's Flaherty's fault.

Quoted for the truth... and also because I just love that name. Whenever I hear it I think that it was a character in the Hobbit.

Busy pressing 'F5' on various websites.

Yeah, it would be more accurate to say "ERod's camp" instead of ERod... and likewise the Tiger's front office instead of Harris. It's just easier to type just the names I guess.

I'm saying that yes. I'm also saying if he was a partial idiot who didn't do the mildly advanced parts of his job that a 12th grader would understand, then yes, he deserves some of our scorn. Again we'll never know for sure what happened. My guess is that Harris did at least some work with ERod. What I don't know is if he got a 100% solid, firm "Yes, I will accept being traded to the Dodgers" or if it was more like "I'd have to think about it, but maybe... probably yeah." I don't know ERod personally, but based on his history here I'd guess that he may not be 100% trustworthy to follow through on vague promises so unless there was an iron clad promise there should have been alternate plans in place.

Harris, in my opinion, should have had numerous conversations with ERod. He should have pushed for a firm commitment on which teams were okay or not okay. He should have had the back of the house stuff done days before the deadline. Now as you said, we'll never know for sure what was or wasn't said or promised or agreed upon. If Harris did all that and then ERod pulled the carpet out at the 11th hour... then Harris gets little blame imho. But if Harris had anything less than a 100% guarantee from ERod that he would accept the trade to the Dodgers, plan B, C, and probably D should have been ready to go just in case.

Who's the poster here who always chimes in that the Salary Cap is a myth??

Regardless of your opinion on Avila/Verlander trade, NOT trading ERod was a fail. EVERYONE knew he was walking and he could have brought a potential good return. If your house is on fire the smart move is to get out of your house. If you stay in your house and turns out an asteroid happens to land in your yard and would have hit and killed you. But instead the wind from the decent and impact ends up blowing out the fire in your house and you survive by staying in your house... well that makes you extremely lucky, not extremely smart.

The ERod non-trade was a massive fail, no question on that. I don't think Flaherty has a no-trade clause so there's not the issue there. But even if he does trade him it could still be a fail. If he waits *too* long so many teams go for secondary targets then the price for Flaherty may fall a bit. I'll admit I haven't been closely following MLB at large but it seems like it's a sellers market so I don't think there's too much danger of this, but still... it's one area where waiting to very last might bite the team.